


The Art of Letter Writing and Marital Arrangements

by HolmesianDeduction



Category: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - All Media Types, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John Le Carré
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Letterwriting, Married Couple, relationship dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-21
Updated: 2013-02-21
Packaged: 2017-11-30 00:50:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/693466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HolmesianDeduction/pseuds/HolmesianDeduction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One evening, George Smiley receives a letter from Ann, who has been gone for several months.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Art of Letter Writing and Marital Arrangements

             George Smiley had not expected the small, carefully folded stationary card on his writing desk.  Picking it up with unusually delicate care, he examined it, his faded blue eyes scanning over the carefully penned address on the back.  After a moment’s hesitation, he sat down in his desk chair, turning the card over in his hands for several minutes before finally resolving to open it.

             The stationary was expensive, but gave easily under his efforts at opening, the delicate wax seal breaking away and shedding a few thin red flakes onto his desk as he unfolded the contents.  The stationary gave off a faint, familiar scent as it was opened, but despite it, George failed to bat an eye, his attention fixed instead on the loose, airy curve of the lettering dotting the page.  Ann’s writing always looked informal next to his own careful, measured hand, but it never failed to be perfect for whatever the occasion happened to be, and he had to pause for a moment before continuing reading.

             She was planning on returning once more to Bywater Street - this time after a three month sabbatical to god-knows-where - and she was, as was their practise, inquiring as to how welcome she was to return.  It had become a ritual between the two of them - it was understood that Ann would always run off with whomever suited her fancy, and it was understood that George would always accept her back.  They had their rules, and they followed them.  Ann would inform him of her intent to return, and he would silently accept, forgiving her and accepting whatever small gift she had brought him as a token of what she termed his victory - the victory being, apparently, the fact that it was always to him that she returned.  All of this was devised between them without words.

             Finally his eyes drifted to the bottom of the page, to the long loops and curls of her signature - the points of her name and the swooping curves with which she attached his surname to her own.  Then, drifting only slightly upwards, they focused on the small lettering directly above, a tiny, serpentine “ _all my love_ ” inscribed entirely in small letters and almost hidden by the size of her signature.  But it was there nonetheless, and that was enough for George.


End file.
